Oxfam Strategic Plan, 2013-2019 - Oxfam International

THE POWER OF PEOPLE AGAINST POVERTY 5
OXFAM STRATEGIC PLAN, 2013 – 2019
Oxfam has a vision: nine billion people will live equitably
and free from the injustice of poverty, on a planet that has
the natural resources to sustain them.
Realizing this vision means overcoming huge and complex
challenges in an ever-more volatile world. In 2050, there
will be 2 billion more people than today, but we are
squandering precious natural resources; inequality is
increasing in poor and rich parts of the world, within and
between countries.
We live in a world that has sufficient resources, means,
and knowledge to solve these problems, yet our leaders
struggle to find the political courage to tackle them.
The blight of poverty demands a powerful and practical
moral response to its causes and the impact of poverty
on people’s lives. A clear change in direction is urgently
needed.
National governments and international organizations are
increasingly ducking their responsibility for tackling the big
issues, often compromised by political weakness, political
expediency or powerful vested interests. Shifting global
power dynamics are resulting in splits between rich and
poor countries on major global issues such as trade and
climate change that affect developing countries.
Climate change is a looming disaster which is already
having dramatic impacts, yet meaningful action has been
paralyzed. Global warming is causing harm and suffering
to vulnerable communities, with increasing frequency of
weather related disasters and volatile food prices. Unfair
access to natural resources - land, water, energy – is
deepening the inequality that hits the poorest hardest.
There is growing public outrage at the corporate
dishonesty and excesses that led to the crisis in the
global financial system and at unaccountable and corrupt
governments that fail to protect the vulnerable and
exacerbate injustice. Profligacy in the rich world, fuelled
by reckless lending, has forced global austerity that
causes great hardship and tragic social consequences
in many parts of the world. Developing countries are
facing a decline in the quantity and quality of aid by many
donor countries. Demand for change, across the world, is
especially passionate from young people, who are being
denied a future in rich and poor countries alike. With so
much at stake, the world cannot afford to slide back into
‘business as usual’. Ultimately it will require people-power
to find a new and more sustainable path from poverty.
There are plenty of reasons for hope. Rejection of the ‘old’
economic growth paradigm opens crucial opportunities
for new thinking and approaches that favour a just and
sustainable future. Ending extreme poverty and inequality
is within the reach of this generation. More progressive
governments, more effective international bodies and
more socially responsible corporations will be an important
factor; but, mainly, lives are being improved by the power
of people to demand their basic rights, turn the trend of
inequality, and create their own solutions together.
Creating the political will for change needs people,
organizations, and alliances working together across
continents, rich and poor countries, and social divides
to drive change locally and globally. Our goal will be
redistribution for greater equality of income, and of
power of poor people; matched by the solidarity of
concerned people in rich countries working to change their
governments’ policies and behaviour. Success will emerge
from the partnership that links local and national action
with global change. It will be vital for organizations with
influence, such as Oxfam, to do our utmost to protect the
political ‘space’ for people’s movements and organizations,
space which is under increasing threat around the world.
Oxfam’s Strategic Plan to 2019 has a vision that sets local
communities and the voices of women, men and young
people at the centre of change. Through dialogue and
pressure on governments and business, and through
practical programs that enable human development,
dignity and wellbeing, it is those voices that are the best
hope for ending discrimination, exclusion and the injustice
of poverty.